Andrew Hearne – Happy days are here again! The first day of three…

As I mentioned, I had a few days fishing in the South… it was a great trip.

This time there were four of us. There were a few cameras flying around for the duration of the trip, and as a result the images used here are a mixture of those taken by all involved. It took a while at the end to sort out what was what and make sure everyone had a copy of all the pictures.

First of all we had Lionel, aka Rodney McSuperchrist, you may or may not recognise him from previous appearances. Then there was Jeremy, whom I have been meaning to fish with for a while now, and I believe has also made an appearance in one or two of Jack’s past reports. Obviously I was there too… and last but not least we had Chris. He’s a pretty well known angler and guide, but more importantly – he’s the local guy with all the knowledge!

I was already in Queenstown before the others got there. Sunday night saw the arrival of Jeremy first, followed by a quick trip to the supermarket for supplies. Lionel eventually turned up and we all made our way to Chris’ place for the night.

Early the next morning… business time!

Just like the saying goes, pictures say more than words. Because I have so many images at my disposal I decided to ease up on the writing part and let you see for yourself how it all unfolded. Here goes nothing.

The first day had a slightly cloudy beginning, but it didn’t take too long for the sun to begin poking through.

Once the sun was on the water we started to see fish reasonably easily.

I found one hard against our bank and Jeremy went to work.

And it worked well…

With the first one out of the way we continued along our merry way. There was plenty of banter to keep things interesting.

Another fish was found sooon after Jeremy released his one and it was time for Superfly to wield his wand.

He didn’t disappoint. He hooked up first cast.

He even landed it successfully…

So far so good. The day was looking rather promising.

Then it was my turn. There were a couple of fish in here. The cicada I was using was inspected by a fish for a very long time before being refused, so I changed over to a parachute. Again it was inspected for what felt like forever, but this time the fish didn’t turn away and delicately sipped it in.

I hooked up, and after a decent tug of war the fish came in.

This fish went some way towards exorcising one of the demons from last season.

I can’t quite remember what was going on here, but there must have been a fish in there somewhere that I didn’t end up catching.

And here is Rodney pointing out a rock to Jeremy and I…

Chris had a turn next and he hooked up on a nice fish.

Yep, Rodney does have two nets. I think he was planning the “Tango” slap netting method?

His technique worked, and Chris was victorious…

A pretty standard, solid fish from the river I believe.

After that Superchrist had another go and connected with a fish for quite a while, until it threw the hook near the net.

And then Jeremy…

But his one stayed stuck and came to the net.

I saw one against the near edge in the shallows, so I cut the nymph away and got right to it.

It very slowly took the first cast and I set the hook. I love this picture of the rod hooped over…

This was the fish of the day so far…

After a small quiet patch we came to a great looking piece of water. Rodney went close to another one but missed out. Jeremy offered me the chance at the next fish but I turned it down, the next thing you know he is hooked up again.

Superchrist was pretty helpful with this one.

I really should have taken him up on the offer!

This one overtook the title of fish of the day.

Soon after that we turned around and marched back to the vehicle. It had been a pretty long day and we were all very tired, but there was more to do yet. From there we drove for over an hour to our next destination. We arrived to find a less than friendly tramper in the hut and after we got set up it was time for dinner.

Superchrist only wanted beer for dinner, but we eventually talked him into having a feed of steak and pasta with us.

That was the first day of three. That night we slept well in the comfort of the hut and woke at a more reasonable hour the next morning for day two. I’ll try to get that report up ASAP…I’m just waiting on a few more pictures.